Therapy in Front of the Mirror - Boost the Integration Between Different Parts

by Harold Dadomo, Alessandro Carmelita, and Marina Cirio

Chair: Harold Dadomo

In the last 30 years the field of Psychotherapy and of Neuroscience have developed significantly. According to the most important and enlightening studies on the psychological health Alessandro Carmelita and Marina Cirio developed a new way of doing therapy with the patients infront of the mirror. This new procedure from clinical observation in the last 5 years has shown to be very effective with many difficult clients. This new integrative modality integrates different aspects of Interpersonal Neurobiology, Polivagal Theory, The Still Face, Mindfulness, Internal Family System Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy into the model of Schema Therapy. The result is something unique, clear and very powerful even with patients that are difficult to be treated. Every fase of the Therapy starting from the Assessment to the ending of the Therapy is made in front of a Mirror in a very specific way. The work on the different modes is systematic and always done in parallel with the work on the relationships both bottom up and up down.

Segment 1

Presenter: Marina Cirio

Marina Cirio will present the reasons of why we created this new approch of doing therapy in front of the mirror. She will talk about all the theories that support this new way of using Psychotherapy in front of the mirror. She will talk first about the development of the personality in a child related to the Attachment relationship with significant others and then she will explain why integrate aspects of different therapies into the Schema Therapy model. She will also explain why this integration should be useful to have quicker and better results also with difficult clients.

Segment 2

Presenter: Alessandro Carmelita

Alessandro Carmelita will present the procedure from the assessment to the end of the therapy. He will show the different techniques and procedures in front of the mirror and explain the rationale of all of them. He will talk about how to do the assessment creating in paralallel a shared awarness of the different modes and how to create from the very first beginning the basis for a significant relationship with the patient. Then he will explaing the different phasis of therapy and talk about the techniques that could be used.

Segment 3

Presenters: Alessandro Carmelita and Marina Cirio

Alessandro Carmelita and Marina Cirio will talk about clinical cases and will show some videos of different interventions that can give a sense of what they usually do when using the mirror during the therapy process. They will also talk about some dangers in using the mirror showing how being in front of the mirror for different kind of patients could be perceived in a different way.

Segment 4

Presenters: Alessandro Carmelita and Marina Cirio

Alessandro Carmelita and Marina Cirio will talk about the future steps in the developing of this new modality of Psychotherapy infront of the mirror. He will talk about new possible research projects and about the pubblication of a new handbook that could descrive in details how to practice therapy in front of the mirror.

Why Schema Therapy?

Schema therapy has been extensively researched to effectively treat a wide variety of typically treatment resistant conditions, including Borderline Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Read our summary of the latest research comparing the dramatic results of schema therapy compared to other standard models of psychotherapy.

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